Unlike his recent predecessors, Pope Francis has a strong focus on the personification of the Devil. Satan is regularly mentioned in speeches and presentations.

He was quite clear about the personification of evil in one of his opening speeches as Pope: “Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the Devil,” he declared.

The Pope has even tried his own hand at exorcism: Last year he placed his hands on the head of a man said to be possessed by four demons. Exorcists say the words he uttered were part of a prayer of “liberation”.

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Pope Francis has put both his hands on top of the head of a disabled child and according to some this gesture represents an act of exorcism. Courtesy Repubblica TV